Roaming mobile call rates reduced

Roaming mobile bills are set to fall in India. The telecom regulator has cut the ceiling tariff for national roaming services.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has ordered that outgoing local calls be capped at Rs 0.80 per minute and outgoing inter-circle calls at Rs. 1.15 per minute. The current ceiling or the maximum charge on national roaming is Rs1 per minute for outgoing local calls.

This will benefit frequent travellers who complain about hefty roaming mobile bills.

Meanwhile, shares of telecom operators like Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular slumped after the Trai announcement as this move is likely to impact revenues of these mobile operators. Bharti Airtel fell over 3 per cent to an intraday low of Rs 405.50, while Idea Cellular shares slumped as much as 3.2 per cent to Rs 186.30.

Item

Proposed ceiling tariff

Outgoing Local voice call while on national roaming

Re. 0.80 per minute

Outgoing long distance (inter-circle) voice call while on national roaming

Re. 1.15 per minute

Incoming voice call while on national roaming

Re. 0.45 per minute

Outgoing local Short Message Services (SMS) while on national roaming

Re. 0.25 per SMS

Outgoing long distance (inter-circle) Short Message Services (SMS) while on national roaming

Re.0.38 per SMS

The telecom regulator has also started review of accounting reporting system of operators on concerns over products and network licences, among others, raised by the industry.

The Accounting Separation Regulations, 2012, are intended to collect such financial data from telecom operators that would enable a meaningful analysis of the financial performance of different telecom products and services, costs, returns and capital employed.

The review also seeks data to identify cross subsidisation, investigate predatory pricing and understand telecom operators pricing and arrangement. It said telecom operators have raised concerns including those related to products and network elements under various telecom licensed services, financial and non-financial performance and periodicity of submission of reports.

Telecom operators have also expressed concerns on requirements relating to adoption of accounting separation reports by company's board and audit. The regulator has invited views of people interested in the subject by April 22.

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